Willis ‘not ready’ to preserve history

Published 4:04 pm, Friday, January 8, 2016

The Moran Gas Building at 75 and 1075 in Willis was built by Charles Johnson. Johnson built his service station and grocery store in 1923 for a cost of $17 ($11 for bricks and $6 for labor).

The Moran Gas Building at 75 and 1075 in Willis was built by Charles Johnson. Johnson built his service station and grocery store in 1923 for a cost of $17 ($11 for bricks and $6 for labor).

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The Moran Building, a historical building built in the 1920s in downtown Willis, is pictured on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, at the southwest corner of Texas 75 and FM 1097.

The Moran Building, a historical building built in the 1920s in downtown Willis, is pictured on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, at the southwest corner of Texas 75 and FM 1097.

Photo: Michael Minasi

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The Moran Building, a historical building built in the 1920s in downtown Willis, is pictured on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, at the southwest corner of Texas 75 and FM 1097.

The Moran Building, a historical building built in the 1920s in downtown Willis, is pictured on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, at the southwest corner of Texas 75 and FM 1097.

Photo: Michael Minasi

Willis ‘not ready’ to preserve history

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Willis is interested in preserving its rich history, but it’s not ready to move forward with a museum, the Community Development Corporation said Thursday.

Instead the CDC is considering different options such as park that could include a recreational center or museum later on.

While reviewing action plan goals for improving the community with Public Management President J. Andrew Rice of Cleveland, the corporation discussed the option of a visitor’s center or museum to capture the past.

CDC member John Lovelady said the city looked at renovating the Moran building into a museum, which was an action goal set in July 2014, but it didn’t work out.

In 2011, the city bought the Moran building that was originally a service station built by Willis business man Charles Johnson.

“In 1923 on the 23rd day of June, I opened a filling station where the Moran building is now. Daddy had $1200 and Mr. Cooper loaned me $600—that’s what I started with,” said Johnson in an article written in the Willis Centennial Edition by Wayburn Castleshouldt.

“Didn’t cost me bust $17 to build the building. Eleven dollars for the brick and $6 to lay them. Wasn’t any light plant in Willis then. We bought a power plant, dug a deep well with an overhead tank, and stocked our store all on $1800. I opened that place at 5 in the morning and closed at 9—seven days a week. I had a service station and a grocery store…”

Johnson also helped build a private water line distribution system that the City later purchased from him, owned a Chevrolet dealership before it became Turner Wise Hardware and was recognized by General Motors in 1955 for selling the second largest number of Chevrolets in the United States, his daughter and Panorama Village resident Eve Elmore shared.

“The building probably stayed as a grocery store until the 1940’s,” Montgomery County Historical Commission Chairman and City Attorney Larry Foerstier said. “By 1933, Moran had started his Moran gas company. He started in Conroe but expanded in Willis and then on to New Waverly. The building would have been purchased in the 1930’s or 1940’s and served as the Moran gas building for the city of Willis during that time.”

After the city purchased Johnson’s old building, now called the Moran, the city contracted an architect company from Kingwood who provided a pricey estimate.

“They did some drawings and in order to bring the building back to par it was going to cost $500,000,” City Manager Hector Forestier said. “An old building is always going to have the same problems, so the city and the CDC decided it would be better to sell it.”

In March 2015 the motion unanimously passed to put the Moran Building and Property up for sale by sealed bids and asking for a minimum bid of $160,000.

The building is still for sale and has not received any “nibbles” yet from buyers, Mary Reed said Thursday during the CDC meeting.

From a developer standpoint and his experience, Rice encouraged finding a way to preserve the city’s history.

“The more you preserve history the better the community,” Rice said. “You man not want to keep this (Moran) building over here. You may want to keep this building over here, you may want to sell it or do something else. But I would encourage you to keep focusing on your history. Because I think there is a lot of good history in Willis and if you don’t have a place to preserve it, you’ll lose it...”

The CDC appeared conflicted and decided it does want to pursue preserving its history such as with a museum, but is “no where near that right now”.

“I’d like to keep it as a goal but later down the road we could pick it back up,” Lovelady said. “At one point before we purchased the building we talked about building a museum and it was said Willis wasn’t ready for a building and the next thing I know they were talking about the Moran building. I think it would have been a whole lot better if we would had built what we wanted.”

Traylor said it lends to what the CDC is suppose to be doing.

“My question when I came to this meeting is what do we really want to accomplish this year in making Willis better,” Traylor said. “…It’s unfortunate the buildings that have been lost in this city because there was some amazing ones…now stuff has moved in and Stripes is a nice facility but I can go to a gas station anywhere. We are slowly losing our downtown feel and we’ve got to keep taking action.”

Rice said it begs to question what to do with the Moran building. He encouraged the CDC to either stop the sell or engage a real estate agent to get serious about selling the building; otherwise, he said the building currently serves no purpose.

“Your point is that is part of the history,” Traylor said. “That building is one of the last pieces and if we sell it, and if it goes, someone will tear it down and it will become retail…that could be a really neat spot for the city.”